MLB Announces Scoring Change That Favors Cleveland Guardians Star
The Cleveland Guardians struck first against the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the ALDS. The first run of the game was thanks to none other than Jose Ramirez who put the ball in play down the third base line which got past Zach McKinstry.
However, the play's original scoring was an error, and while Cleveland still took the lead, Ramirez wasn't credited with the RBI.
The play was scored that Ramirez reached base on a fielder's choice and then an error, which meant he technically started the game 0-1 from the plate. However, after the game was finished, the Guardians petitioned MLB to review the play and change it to a hit for Ramirez.
After the review, MLB honored the request and changed the original scoring to credit Ramirez for the double and RBI. Another repercussion of this decision is that Detoirt's starter, Tyler Holton, now gets another earned run tacked onto his final box score.
This also slightly raised Ramirez's career playoff batting average. Before, he was hitting .236 in the postseason, but now that's been raised to .244.
This is likely the right call, and it's nice to see MLB correct the original decision.
Jose smoked this ball as it came off the bat at 93.3 mph. It clearly had some nasty spin on it, too. Did McKinstry misplay it slightly? Sure. But the ball also took a last-second bounce, which is what really allowed it to get past him. Crediting McKinstry with an error doesn't seem a little harsh when watching the replay.